Standing Up for the Victim,Siding with the Bully or Standing by? Bystander Responses in Bullying Situations

In this study we examined children's self‐efficacy, outcome expectations, and outcome values in relation to bystander responses in bullying situations. We proposed that beyond the effect of self‐efficacy, the decision to defend the victim of bullying vs. remain passive vs. reinforce the bully depends on outcomes children expect from defending, and on the value they place on these outcomes. Our sample consisted of 6397 Finnish children (3232 girls and 3165 boys) from third, fourth, and fifth grades (mean ages 9–11 years). Results showed that the motivational underpinnings of defending the victim, remaining passive, and reinforcing the bully varied. Defending was associated with the expectation that the victim feels better as a result of defending as well as valuing such an outcome. Reinforcement of bullying was associated with negative expectations and not caring about the positive outcomes. Conflicting expectations and values were linked to remaining passive. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for anti‐bullying interventions.     

A Pilot Study About the Needs of Older Gays and Lesbians

Abstract

In a pilot study, a population of gay and lesbian elders were surveyed to determine what types of long term plans they have made in preparation for their old age, what types of information they feel service providers need to know to better meet their long-term needs, and what is their perception of aging. The results of this pilot study demonstrated that almost three-fourths of the total sample have started to make plans for growing old. The respondents reported that social workers needed to be more knowledgeable about gay lifestyles and the importance of their partners. It was also found that the views of aging became more positive as the gay and lesbian individuals grow older.     

Towards a transdisciplinary blueprint to studying bullying

Events related to bullying are so complex that they require a much broader examination than is usually available from a single disciplinary point of view. The purpose of the present paper is to offer new ways of examining this complex phenomenon. We will argue that transdisciplinarity (henceforth TD) could bring a more comprehensive analysis and a deeper understanding to the current state of bullying research. As a way of emphasizing the benefits of a more pluralistic and integrative approach, we will use TD based examples to describe the general context and process we used to develop a new definition of bullying, one that provides a sharper distinction between bullying and general aggression, thus offering the possibility of more targeted intervention strategies. The present paper is divided into three sections, namely, a selected review of the TD literature, an application of TD inspired ideas and tools that examine bullying from a number of interrelated perspectives, and an outline of a conceptual ‘Disciplinary Continuum’, as an example of how TD can be used to examine complex phenomena. Moreover, we will highlight TD’s expanding role in the funding process, as it is increasingly required by granting agencies and governmental ministries as a criterion for universities’ funding. We conclude by outlining ideas for further inquiries.     

Division of Labor,Gender Ideology,and Marital Satisfaction in East Asia

Using data from the 2006 Family Module of the East Asian Social Survey (N = 3,096), this article examines associations of marital satisfaction with divisions of housework and gender ideology in four East Asian societies: urban China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Compared with Japanese and Korean married women and men, Chinese and Taiwanese spouses were more satisfied with their marriage and had more egalitarian divisions of housework, but simultaneously they held less egalitarian gender ideologies. Multivariate analyses showed that relative share of housework was negatively associated with marital satisfaction for Japanese and Korean men and for Korean and Taiwanese women. Egalitarian gender ideology was significantly associated with lower marital satisfaction only among Taiwanese women. In addition, the negative association between housework and marital satisfaction was more pronounced for Taiwanese women who espoused more egalitarian gender ideologies. The authors discuss how differences in macro‐level social contexts explain these cross‐society variations.     

Unpacking Within‐Household Gender Differences in Partners' Subjective Benefits From Household Income

The authors examine how contributions to household resources, indicated by employment status, influence satisfaction with household income (SWHI) for members of male/female couples. They take changes in SWHI, which may differ within couples, to indicate changes in perceived benefits from their common household income, benefits that can go beyond individual consumption. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey for 2,396 couples from 1996 to 2007, three gender effects are identified. First, men predominate in making the type of contribution that most positively influences SWHI, namely, full‐time employment. Second, the effect of contributions depends on the gender of the contributor, with men's employment being more influential than women's. Third, within couples, making the more influential contribution, as men tend to do, leads to relatively greater SWHI. The authors conclude that gender asymmetry in contributions made to household resources is one way in which gender inequalities invade and inhabit households.     

Gambling-related problems across life domains: an exploratory study of non-treatment-seeking weekly gamblers

This study uses content analysis to provide a qualitative exploration of how life roles are affected by frequent (i.e. at least weekly) gambling, based on in-depth interviews with a community sample of 161 non-treatment-seeking frequent gamblers. Over half (51.6%) of the participants indicated problems associated with gambling and 131 examples were identified. The majority of problems were relational (50.4%), followed by financial (19.8%), work (13.7%), and school related (8.4%). Slightly less than half of participants (41.7%) reported losses due to gambling and 92 examples were provided. The most frequently reported loss was identity related (54.3%), which included self-esteem/shame (38.0%), estrangement from family (34.0%), estrangement from friends (16.0%), and estrangement from work colleagues (6.0%). Additional losses included health (29.3%) and financial (8.7%). Almost two-thirds of participants (64.6%) reported difficulty concentrating in family (18.4%), work (16.8%), and school (9.6%) activities, whereas general concentration problems comprised an additional 48.8% of the examples provided. Half of participants (49.1%) discussed behavioral withdrawal due to gambling, which included withdrawal from work (44.3%), relationships (24.5%), school (15.1%), and personal (6.6%) activities. These findings paint a complex picture of how gambling interferes with different life roles for some frequent gamblers, identifying important areas for future research and practice.     

Policing native pleasures: a colonial history

The moral modality of colonial power is still with us when it comes to the recreation of sexual norms of traditional or feudal society. We can examine the emergent properties of colonial knowledge anew by exploring how the colonial regime's strategic attention of regulating brothels in India differed from the analytic of power Foucault described for sexuality in European society. It turns out that amongst other things, public anxieties about the failure of adaptation by South Asians are incapable of leaving sexuality aside as a key interpretive device for their culture. The British preoccupation with reproducing the dynamics of the bourgeois matrimonial market on foreign soil in the mid‐nineteenth century similarly necessitated a sociological pretext for racial purity. However, the kind of knowledge a typical traveller and employee of the East India Company brought to the Victorian public from his own researches in the brothels and streets of colonial India, which revealed how popular prostitution was as a vice amongst the officer class, was also more than a welcome imaginary relief from Christian morality; it was an alternative vision of modernity.     

Shit is good: Mental health social work with lives of squalor

This paper investigates the phenomenon of three clients living in squalor, all of whom have severe and enduring mental health problems, and are on the caseload of a mental health social work team. By thinking about the clients both individually and as a group, within a psychoanalytic framework, it attempts to understand their squalor in a new way, with particular regard to the transference and countertransference experienced by the practitioner. By making use of social work literature as well as that concerning organisations and community care, it also discusses the impact these clients make on the wider community around them, and examines some of the dilemmas faced by the practitioner. The implications for social work are serious and far-reaching and these are discussed with regard to long-term intervention as well as professional and personal scrutiny.